NOVUM ORGANUM. 



grown lively and strong ; if the same motion be found in the planets, 

 but so disposed and graduated that the nearer the planet is to the 

 earth the slower is the motion, the farther the planet is distant the 

 quicker is the motion, and in the starry heavens quickest of all ; 

 then, indeed, the diurnal motion must be received as real in the 

 heavens, and the motion of the earth rejected ; since it will be mani 

 fest that motion from east to west is entirely cosmical,and by consent 

 of the universe ; being most rapid in the highest parts of the heavens, 

 gradually subsiding, and at last ceasing and being extinguished in the 

 immovable, that is, the earth. 



In like manner let the Nature inquired into be that other Motion of 

 Rotation so celebrated among astronomers, resisting and opposed to 

 the diurnal motion, viz., from west to east ; which the old astronomers 

 attribute to the planets and also to the starry heavens, but Copernicus 

 and his followers to the earth as well ; and let it be asked whether 

 any such motion be found in Nature, or whether it be not rather a 

 theory fabricated and assumed for the convenience and abbreviation 

 of calculation, and to favour that beautiful project of explaining the 

 motion of the heavenly bodies by means of perfect circles. For this 

 motion in the higher regions is in no way proved to be true and real, 

 either by the failure of a planet to return, in its diurnal motion, to the 

 same point in the starry sphere, or by the ditTcrent polarity of the 

 zodiac as compared with that of the world ; which two things have 

 originated the idea of this motion. For the first phenomenon is 

 admirably accounted for by supposing that one is passed by and out 

 run by another : the second by the supposition of spiral lines ; so that 

 the inequality of return and the declination to the tropics may rather 

 be modifications of the one diurnal motion than motions of resistance, 

 or about different poles. And most certain it is, if we may reason like, 

 plain men for awhile (dismissing the fictions of astronomers and the 

 schools, whose fashion it is unreasonably to do violence to the senses, 

 and to prefer what is most obscure), that this motion does appear to the 

 sense such as we have described it ; and we once caused it to be repre 

 sented by a sort of machine composed of iron wires. 



The following may be taken as an Instance of the Cross on the sub 

 ject. If there be found in any history worthy of credit that there has 

 been any comet, of either the higher or lower class, which has not re 

 volved in manifest correspondence (however irregular) with the diurnal 

 motion, but has rather revolved towards the contrary part of the 

 heavens, then indeed we must determine thus much, that there is in 

 Nature some such motion. But if nothing of this kind is found, it 

 must be regarded as suspicious, and recourse must be had to other 

 Instances of the Cross on this point. 



In like manner let the Nature investigated be Weight or Gravity. 

 &quot;We have two roads meeting about this Nature, after this fashion. 

 Heavy and weighty bodies must needs either tend of their own Nature 

 towards the centre of the earth, by reason of their peculiar structure, 

 or else they must be attracted by the corporeal mass of the earth itself, 

 as by a congregation of kindred bodies, and move towards it by 



